THE NORTH-WEST EXPEDITION. [From the " Britannia," February 16.]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 450, 7 August 1850, Page 3

THE NORTH-WEST EXPEDITION. [From the " Britannia," February 16.]

Ihe announcement that anexpedition it tt be sent by Lancaster Sound to look for (he missing alnus h<is relieved the public mind from considerable anxiety on Ibis important subj> ct. Ihe idea of limiting tlie search to the passage by Behring's Straits •eemed to preclude all hope of sucee§s. But if Franklik is to be looked for at all the search nsuit be to the north of the main land of America, and probably to thenorlh of Melville Island. That the Admirality will do all that can be done we have no doubt. But our chief hope would be in land expeditions, or in some attempt to reach the is'ands from Mackenzie's lliver. We cannot comprehend why a patty taking" its station at the mouth of the liver should not lend look-out detachments to the island in which it ii altnoit cerlain that Franklin is ewbuyed. That his ships are not lost we fully believe, for there is no inistiince where ship and crew w<.re lo B t together sjnee the beginning of i hose expeditions But a ship once embayed may be fixed for ever. Boat expeditions can go where ihips are wholly useless ; pedestrian expedition! can go where boats are useless ; but why should not Canadian voyageurs, Esquimaux and Indians, be sent out with British officers at their heads, prepared w«th sledges to sl.de on the he, and canoes to curry them over the littt ot the ice Until either of the snips are found, or the melancholy evidence of tlieir loss puti a close to all inquiry ? We cannot comprehend the employment of the vessels now sent ou<", or sending, except ai conveyances for travelling parties. I L is to those paities we look alone with hop, and we should conceive that a few dozen canoe • men fiom Hudson's B^y stations would be the true investigators.